VENEZUELA: The 24-Hour Coup

At 4 a.m. in Caracas' Miraflores Palace
one day last week, the classic challenge of a military usurper faced
the moderately leftist government of President Romulo Betancourt. An
hour earlier General Jesus Maria Castro Leon, 51, former Defense
Minister and a tinkling symbol of Venezuela's top brass, had crossed
the Colombian frontier. Proceeding to San Cristobal (pop. 90,000), 385
miles southwest of Caracas, he took over its 500-man garrison from a
disloyal colonel and by radio urged other generals to help him
"restore the prestige of the armed forces."